2002 Recipients
Robert H. Beckett '57
Robert Beckett, entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist, today we honor your lifetime devotion to your alma mater. Whether serving the Class of '57 or chairing a Board of Trustees committee with distinction, you have helped shape this institution you love.
Leadership was a skill you honed early in your undergraduate years at WPI. A guard on the undefeated 1954 football team, you competed as well in swimming and tennis. Excelling in both athletics and the arts and humanities, your literary achievements were recognized in your election to Phi Delta Epsilon, the journalism honor society. These accomplishments-along with serving four years in the Tech Senate, as president in your senior year-enhanced the undergraduate experience at WPI for many of your classmates.
Your integrity, thoughtful manner and understated leadership style have served you well, both as a corporate executive and as a WPI trustee for the past 15 years. During this time you have continuously lent your expertise to the Development, Executive, Audit and Trusteeship committees. Moreover, you have helped lead two of the university's most ambitious fund-raising efforts in the last quarter century: the $52M Campaign for Excellence, which closed 21 percent over goal in 1991, and the current $150M Campaign for WPI.
In both of these efforts you have led by example. A charter member of the Alden Society and a lifetime member of the President's Advisory Council, your personal and financial commitment to your alma mater have been inspirational to myriad others.
You once remarked that receiving a scholarship to WPI was the defining factor in your professional success. And it was your engineering skills, hard work and business acumen that made Robec, a company you co-founded in 1978, a national leader in the worldwide distribution of microcomputers, peripherals and software. The fruits of that labor led to the endowed Beckett Scholarship Fund, which you and your wife, Pat, established in 1991, and which have enabled nearly 20 young men and women to attend WPI. Indeed, that fund will be the lasting legacy of your foresight and extraordinary generosity.
Bob Beckett, it is with great pride and admiration for your exceptional service to your alma mater that we present to you the Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to WPI.
Paul S. Kennedy '67
Paul Kennedy, manufacturing visionary, business leader, consummate volunteer and global activist, you have been tireless in your work for your alma mater. Your support for WPI has been as well engineered as the products your company produces. Your advocacy of and for the university has been as international as your travels and influence.
Everywhere you go you take WPI with you, actively lobbying customers, competitors and government officials on behalf of the university, improving both our connections and our reputation. The respect you command with
governmental power brokers at the state and federal levels-from individual legislators to departments, from the EPA to commerce-is reflected upon WPI. Almost single-handedly, you have raised WPI's profile in Worcester, in Boston, in Washington, D.C., and abroad. You have helped us secure grants totaling several million dollars through your influence, impacting technologies critical to industries as diverse as metal processing and homeland security.
The list of your contributions to the university is endless. You serve on the Advisory Board of the Metals Processing Institute, the largest industry/academia consortium in the world. You serve on WPI's Board of Trustees. As an untiring advocate for manufacturing, you serve on WPI's Manufacturing Engineering Program Advisory Board, and there work to build an educational program to train manufacturing leaders of the future. You were a member of the Global Advisory Committee, which recommended to WPI that it establish an international advisory board, and you now serve on the President's International Advisory Board. In that role, you have been instrumental in launching efforts to reach our international alumni, and to build WPI's name recognition and reputation in locations including London, Athens, Hong Kong and Barcelona.
Your commitments have benefited a world much larger than WPI. As president of Kennedy Die Castings, you have led a remarkable company to ever-greater success and respect, traveling around the world to create new and diverse international markets.
You were founding president of the North American Die Casting Association and have served as president of the Society of Die Casting Engineers. A dynamic speaker and writer, you have traveled the nation working toward industrial development.
Paul Kennedy, it is with pride, honor, utmost respect and great gratitude that we present you with the Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to WPI.
Joseph J. Maggi '67
Joseph Maggi, your commitment to volunteerism and your support of your alma mater have garnered you respect from your class and well-earned recognition from the WPI community.
As a student, you were called to a leadership role as president of your fraternity, Theta Chi. As an alumnus, you stepped forward to support the university as a fund-raising volunteer. It was as a class agent, and then head agent, for the Class of 1967 that you began your alumni leadership role with WPI. You have distinguished yourself further by serving as a member of the Executive Board of the Alumni Association and as chair of the Alumni Funds Board. You have been recognized as a volunteer for all occasions through your service on your Class Board of Directors, as a reunion volunteer, and as a member of the committee for your class's 25th Anniversary Gift effort.
You have continuously endeavored to raise awareness of the importance of volunteerism and its connection to the long-standing health and vibrancy of the university. Maintaining that gifts of time are as crucial a component of philanthropy as gifts of dollars and cents, you have been a generous supporter of the university in both capacities by becoming a lifetime member of the President's Advisory Council and, later, a member of the Alden Society. These recognition circles underscore your belief that the university needs support today and tomorrow-in time as well as other resources.
Perhaps the best way to summarize your commitment to WPI as an institution can be found in your own words, from the September 1995 issue of the The Wire:
"...I do what I do because of the people. I don't do it because I was a great student and I loved the education, and I don't do it because I like bricks and mortar. But I find as I get older I have very fond memories of the people I knew when I was here."
Joe Maggi, it is because of your commitment to volunteerism and people that WPI recognizes your contributions and your loyalty by presenting you with the Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to WPI.
Charles M. Stasey '57
Charles Stasey, you represent the best of what WPI has to celebrate. For as far back as anyone can remember, you have been an integral part of Reunion Weekend and Homecoming activities through generous doses of hard work, high spirits and fierce loyalty to your alma mater.
As general co-chair of the Reunion Committee, your leadership and management skills have made the weekend a stirring success, year after year. Not only have you taken on countless, thankless tasks, you have challenged your classmates to step forward and get involved.
You served on the Class of 1957's Reunion Committee for your 25th, 30th, 40th and 45th Reunions and chaired the committee for your 35th Reunion. Your efforts helped bring about record class gifts. As an Anniversary Class agent for the 40th, you inspired your classmates to new heights of generosity, making the Class of 1957 the first to break the $2 million mark with its anniversary gift.
You stepped forward to organize your Class Board of Directors as soon as the concept was introduced in 1992, and have served faithfully, taking on the role of chair in 1997. You represented your class on the Alumni Council and later served on the Alumni Funds Board. Your participation on the President's Advisory Council and your service on its steering committee have been exemplary.
Beyond all that, you seize every opportunity to promote WPI spirit. From golf tournaments to tailgates, from newsletters to vanity plates, you go all out to create fellowship among your classmates. Along with your wife, Martha, you have succeeded in making the love of WPI a family affair.
Charlie Stasey, in recognition of your countless hours of service and your unflagging spirit, we are overjoyed to present you with the Hebert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to WPI.
John M. Tracy '52
Jack Tracy, your enthusiasm to serve your alma mater and your class has been exemplary. Your strong sense of dedication and pursuit of excellence for this institution have been the hallmarks of your volunteer career at WPI.
After graduating from WPI with a degree in civil engineering in 1952, you worked for Gilbane Building Company until 1959, when you left to start Tracy & Lucey Company, an independent civil engineering firm. As treasurer and trustee, you are actively involved in the company, but you're still able to find time to exercise your passion for the game of golf and to spend time with your grandchildren.
A longtime member of the President's Advisory Council, you have served WPI as an active volunteer for your class and as a member of the Alumni Funds Board. Over the years, you have served in a multitude of ways on the Class of '52 Reunion Steering Committee for your 40th and now your 50th Reunion. In this capacity, you have challenged your classmates, and others, to reach beyond what is believed to be possible.
In 1998, you established the J. Honor Tracy Scholarship Fund, elevating you to the ranks of Presidential Founder. This endowed scholarship, in honor of your wife, once again demonstrates that through your generosity and vision, you have given the gift of a WPI education to generations to come. In addition, you are a member of the Alden Society, a new generation of donors whose future gifts will help sustain the university well into the 21st century. As a major donor to WPI, you have demonstrated your lifelong commitment to this institution.
Jack Tracy, in recognition of your leadership and continued commitment to WPI through your generous support of time and personal resources, it is an honor to present you with the Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to WPI.
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